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BCAAs reducing PEM

ljimbo423

ljimbo423

Senior Member
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4,705
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United States, New Hampshire
ellie84 said:
Can one take BCAAs when eating or is it useless? I always forget about stuff that has to be taken before eating and I don't have regular meal times, so I can't set an alarm.
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I take a high dose of BCAA's every day. If I forget to take them on an empty stomach I take them with food. They aren't absorbed as well but if they are similar to L-glutamine, they will still be about 80% absorbed.
 
ljimbo423

ljimbo423

Senior Member
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4,705
Location
United States, New Hampshire
ellie84 said:
The recommended dose is 4g. What would a high dose be?
I can't for the life of me remember to take them, will try setting an alarm.
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I'm taking 13 grams a day in 2 divided doses. For a reference, many bodybuilders take 5-10 grams a day. They give me a significant boost in energy, that's usually maintained throughout the day and even into the night.
 
Mary

Mary

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Southern California
ellie84 said:
The recommended dose is 4g. What would a high dose be?
I can't for the life of me remember to take them, will try setting an alarm.
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@ellie84 - I wouldn't start out with a "high" dose but start gradually and see how you do. I take about 5 grams a day and do fine with that. I tried taking 8 or 10 grams a day, and it caused insomnia for me. So we're all different. I wish I could take ljimbo423's dose but I can't!
 
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ellie84

Senior Member
Messages
120
Location
Italy
I plan on taking the recommended dose, so 4g (maybe increase 1g at a time from there).
I was asking because ljimbo423 said that 80% might still be absorbed even with food and, seeing as it's very difficult for me to remember to take something before eating, I was wondering how much of that dose would be absorbed and whether I'd need to take more to obtain the same result.
Ok, I don't know if I made myself clear :xeyes: thanks all for the information. I set up 2 alarms and lets see how this goes.
 
ljimbo423

ljimbo423

Senior Member
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4,705
Location
United States, New Hampshire
ellie84 said:
I was asking because ljimbo423 said that 80% might still be absorbed even with food and, seeing as it's very difficult for me to remember to take something before eating, I was wondering how much of that dose would be absorbed and whether I'd need to take more to obtain the same result.
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I just did some research on the best time to take BCAA's. From what I read, the main difference between taking them with food instead of on an empty stomach, is it takes longer for them to be absorbed when taken with food.

This could explain why I don't notice any difference when I take them with or without food. Body builders often take them both with food or without.

I think I'm going to start spreading my dose out more throughout the day, to see if I can get a more even, sustained energy from them, with or without food.

What dose you will need, will depend on how your body responds to them. 5 grams might be plenty or you might do very well on 10-15. It all depends on the person and possible side effects.

The biggest side effect is often insomnia, when too high a dose is taken or if the last dose of the day is too close to bedtime.:)
 
ljimbo423

ljimbo423

Senior Member
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Location
United States, New Hampshire
ellie84 said:
Guys, today I took 9g, increasing 1g each day and I notice absolutely nothing. When should I stop before saying this doesn't do anything for me? :rofl:
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I didn't notice much effect until I got up to about 10-15 grams a day. You might try 15 grams a day for a few days. If you still don't notice any improvement, I'd say it's probably not going to help.
 
Mary

Mary

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17,389
Location
Southern California
ellie84 said:
Guys, today I took 9g, increasing 1g each day and I notice absolutely nothing. When should I stop before saying this doesn't do anything for me? :rofl:
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@ellie84 - how long have you been taking it? 9 grams is a fairly large dose. Are you taking it with or without food? That would affect the dose as well.

Also - the BCAAs' primary benefit for me was to cut my PEM recovery time by a little more than half. I had been taking it for 5 days or so, didn't notice anything really good but neither anything bad, when I crashed because I'd over done it, the usual. Usually my crashes would last 2 - 3 days, depending on how severely I'd overdone it. So I was literally stunned late afternoon of day 1 when I felt the crash lifting. It NEVER ended that quickly before. It felt too good to be true. And I've been taking BCAAs ever since, and I've continued to recover at the same rate.

So they might help you with recovering from PEM. They didn't increase my energy much, just a little, but this was enough for me. It's still huge, I can't imagine going back to how crashing used to be for me. It's been almost 5 years now. So you might want to wait until you crash - PEM - and see if the BCAAs help with that.
 
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ellie84

Senior Member
Messages
120
Location
Italy
I went up to 12g, did 10-11-12 each for a few days and now I stopped. I didn't notice any difference and was fed up with having to swallow all those huge tablets. :lol:

This is pretty normal for me actually, during the years I have come to the conclusion that I have high drug/substances tolerance.
But remember that BCAAs for me are able to block hypoglycemia induced by physical activity (supposedly, not checked with glucometer). I developed a very vague theory that the difference is that in that case BCAAs work at a muscle level, competing with glucose uptake, instead of a CNS level, as the articles linked in the first post suggest. But I can't think straight to learn anything from those articles. Can someone explain in easy terms for a foggy brain? I read that BCAAs are supposed to suppress the uptake of tryptophan/serotonine (5-HT), therefore reducing CNS fatigue. So there's too much tryptophan/serotonine in the CFS brain? Is it a mechanism alike to that of SSRIs?
I took an SSRI and SAMe and they had no effect, only side effects, especially inducing suicidal thoughts which I never had outside of that. I also tried 5-HTP, no effect. What does this mean?
Or maybe I just need a higher dose of BCAAs to get an effect.
Any idea?

Edit: OK, I read the whole thread and read about BCAAs and glucose. I think it makes sense they help in avoiding hypoglycemia induced by physical exercise by reducing glucose uptake. Although I can't figure out why they wouldn't raise glycemia in the case of post prandial hypoglycemia. But maybe it has to do with the timing. When you take BCAAs for the gym you take half dose 30 minutes before the workout and half dose 30 minutes after. But how can you take them 30 minutes before and after a post prandial hypoglycemic episode? It doesn't come with an appointment.
I think it also makes sense not to take them indiscriminately for me, as I have impaired glucose tolerance I'm at risk for diabetes. Although I doubt they did anything to my blood sugar in these days I took them, if they raise blood sugar I guess it's best to use them only if I'm pretty sure I'm going to have hypoglycemia (as in physical exercise).
 
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ellie84

Senior Member
Messages
120
Location
Italy
Well, although I certainly have chronic fatigue I haven't been evaluated for nor diagnosed with CFS yet... so it's possible that I have something different from you, but haven't found out what. It's what I'm trying to find out (like everyone here, I know). So if someone has any suggestion regarding the considerations I made in the previous post he/she is welcome. :)
 
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